


Stars

by wastefulreverie



Series: PhannieMay Shots 2018 [10]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: AU, Bittersweet Ending, Blood Blossoms, Dead!Danny, Friendship, Fully dead au, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, danny and valerie bonding, full ghost AU, full ghost danny, red huntress, space, space obsession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2019-09-30 22:30:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17232404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastefulreverie/pseuds/wastefulreverie
Summary: "Valerie half wondered if she had fallen off of her board, into some sort of dream, but she found that the boy in front of her was startlingly legit. As she gaped at him, he looked back just as surprised, and his puzzled expression gripped Valerie's heart with a sympathy she didn't know she had."





	1. Stars

Valerie groaned as her suit tormented her for the third time that night. The ghost alert on her wrist buzzed insistently, causing her to almost smack herself in the arm in pure annoyance. She had a test to study for, and none of these ghosts would allow her any time to actually be active in her own life. Not to mention, that aside from the Fentons (who hadn't been quite enthusiastic since... the _accident_ ), she was the only ghost hunter, so that meant she had to take care of almost every ghostly threat within Amity Park. Nevertheless, ghost hunting was her responsibility as the Red Huntress, so therefore, no matter how tired she was, she couldn't turn away from the impending battle. Whoever it was, she just hoped that they would let her cram them in a thermos so she could actually _pass_ Lancer's exam, otherwise, she was looking at a new brand of hell called summer school.

She kicked off from the ground, allowing her suit to activate her jet-sled and to propel her into the air. She leaned into the momentum of the board and programmed her GPS to fly her to where the ghost was staying idle in one position over the park, hovering at approximately 6,000 feet in the air. As Valerie flew, a light breeze brushed past her as she soared, higher and higher into the darkness of the sky, further away from the artificial city lights below and up towards the clouds. Even though she was flying into battle, she was half tempted to remove her helmet so she could feel the cold winds flutter through her hair, but thought better of herself. She was here to dispose of the threat, nothing else, and then she would return home.

_Focus, Valerie,_ she chastised herself.

Finally, she saw it. She was over the lowest clouds now, with only an expanse of pure black and faint white pinpricks above her. Hence, the darkness of the night sky didn't hide her prey very well; his ethereal white glow illuminated the immediate area around him, drawing Valerie's eyes to him like a moth to a flame. She smirked. _Gotcha_!

The ghost itself wasn't very intimidating. From behind she could see that he had the stature of a young boy, maybe somewhere around thirteen, with iridescent pearl white hair. He wore plain beige pants with a plain black and sky blue shirt with matching Converse. From where Valerie floated, he looked practically harmless! After all, unlike most of her foes, he wasn't purposely wreaking destruction upon the town, which was a pleasantly nice break from her usual chaotic brawls. However, she had to remind herself that he was still a ghost, so he _had_ to be contained for the safety of the town. Furthermore, as a veteran fighter, Valerie knew not to let a ghost's looks deceive her. That ghost's appearance was nothing more than a mirage; his true power could be more immense than a ghost ten times his size. They were tricky creatures to classify when it came to strength evaluation.

She snuck behind him, half expecting him to sense her presence, but he remained none the wiser to the stealthy human huntress floating just feet away from him, trying to decide the best strategy for this situation. Pulling the thermos out on him first thing would probably be a bad move; unless a ghost was already weakened from a prior attack, it was unlikely that even a weak specter would stay thoroughly contained. So, the other option was to initiate a strong attack before he noticed her, which meant she should hurry, because he wouldn't stay unaware of her stalking him for long.

Just as Valerie pulled her giant blaster onto her shoulder, preparing to fire at the new ghost, he looked back at her, startled.

Valerie was floored. She... she recognized this ghost.

His green eyes reflected eerily in the visor of her suit, and the ghostly light from his body cast odd shadows across his face. It looked so familiar, yet so _wrong_. Valerie half wondered if she had fallen off of her board, into some sort of dream, but she found that the boy in front of her was startlingly legit. As she gaped at him, he looked back just as surprised, and his puzzled expression gripped Valerie's heart with a sympathy she didn't know she had.

There was no doubt about it in Valerie's mind. This was the ghost of Valerie's old classmate, Danny Fenton. The same boy who had died in an untimely accident in his parents' laboratory two years ago. The boy who had lowered all the flags in the city, the boy whose face was all over the television for weeks, the boy people cried for at the many candlelight vigils. Valerie herself had attended his funeral, with the rest of the city, wondering hopelessly how something so tragic could have occurred.

And he was a ghost.

“Please don't shoot me,” he whispered.

Valerie almost fell off of her board in shock. It was unnerving to hear his voice crackle with the warbled sound of a ghost's. She'd never really been close to him when he was alive, but he was one of those people that everyone just _knew_. Now here she was, faced with an impossible dilemma; shoot him, or not. He was a ghost ( _evil, malevolent, killer!_ ), but he was also the sweet boy Valerie knew from school that had died so, so young. Decisively, Valerie quickly made up her mind. She abandoned her blaster and let it recede and compress back into her suit.

“D – Danny Fenton?” she asked, heedfully. She didn't know how much he could remember from his life. From what she could tell, some ghosts recalled their Earthly existence perfectly, while some failed to remember anything.

But as she said the former human's name, his faced turned to one of recognizable bafflement. Valerie noted that his reaction suggested that it had been a _very_ long time since he had heard his own name spoken, presumably since before his death.

“How...?” his voice sounded so crippled, yet hungry for any form of recognition. In hopes of reuniting with someone who remembered his identity, he frantically scanned Valerie's afflicted form. “Do you _know_ me?”

Valerie didn't know how to answer. So far, Danny wasn't showing any malevolence on the surface and appeared quite genuine, but she knew that all that could chance in a second. Thus she carefully pressed one of the buttons hidden on the inside of her wrist, and her visor retreated back inside her suit, allowing her head to be completely exposed to the brisk winds of the unrelenting sky.

The ghost stared back at her in wonder, evidently trying to place her name and where he knew her from. Finally, he responded to her spontaneous reveal, with a dubious tone. “...Valerie? From school?”

She nodded, numbly.

“Why are you... here? In the sky, with a hoverboard?” he asked, sounding both awkward and confused. _Even after death, that boy is a nervous wreck_ , Valerie thought, incoherently.

She pursed her lips. “I hunt – uh... I keep ghosts out of Amity Park,” she corrected herself.

What was she thinking? He was a ghost, and she just admitted that she came here to hunt him down. _Stupid stupid stupid!_

“But...” Valerie continued quickly, noticing his volatile look of panic, “I won't hurt you, unless you're hurting somebody else. I promise. I... just do this because there's so many ghosts who destroy our city... and somebody has to make sure Amity is safe.”

“Oh,” he said, understanding. “That makes sense. A lot of the other ghosts get carried away, so I can understand that. It's not their fault they happened to get stuck with violent obsessions, a lot of them are really nice, but that doesn't make their actions good, I guess.” He paused, and looked back at Valerie graciously, “Oh, and thanks for not shooting me.”

All of what he was saying was going too quickly for Valerie's head to process. She'd never had a real conversation with a ghost before, likewise a ghost of somebody she had known when they were alive. It was simply too surreal for her to be talking to Danny Fenton's remains of post-life consciousness like they were two old colleagues meeting in a coffee shop.

“I'm sorry,” she said, “what do you mean by 'obsessions'?”

“Oh, for a ghost to form and stay in existence, we have to have some kind of obsession or unfulfilled reason keeping us here,” he explained. “It's basically what drives each of us and our actions, and if we don't indulge in it enough, we can become really weak and sick. It takes a lot for someone to get over their obsession, and if they do, they get to move on to what's next, whatever that is.”

Valerie thought of some her common enemies. Skulker, obsessed with hunting; Ember, obsessed with fame; Technus, obsessed with technology; Spectra, obsessed with others' misery; Box Ghost obsessed with... you know; etc. From the standpoint Danny was offering, it made sense now why they did what they did, and she felt herself being slightly impressed. But that left another pressing question.

“What's your obsession?” she blurted.

As he processed her words, Danny's green eyes blazed aggressively and he clenched his fists, which thereafter began to glow green. Then, his expression placated once again and he lost all signs of hostility.

“Sorry,” he said, quickly. “That's just something that's taboo to ask, but since you didn't really know I'm okay with it. You can assume a ghost's obsession, but you don't really ask because it's _really_ personal. It's up there with asking about how someone died.”

He turned to where he was floating on his back now, “My obsession,” he said, “is space. When I was alive, my dream was to be an astronaut so I could explore the planets and stars and see all of it, but... I never got the chance because of Mom and Dad's portal killing me and stuff.”

The way he phrased his death so casually made Valerie slightly sick, but she fought her revulsion for his sake. She could still remember the grim faces of her friends when all of the students were corralled into the gym when they made the official announcement. That day had made it clear: Danny's death was to be respected, not a light matter.

He laughed, “I guess that's why like all the other ghosts, I came into the human world tonight. All I ever wanted was to get to space, and the Ghost Zone is a great substitute for that but... it's not real. Sure, it's an infinite abyss full of potential exploration... but... there's no stars,” he remarked, almost bitterly. “How can it can it be space with no stars?”

He gestured upwards. Valerie looked back up at the sky, and now that her eyes had adjusted to the night's darkness, the stars were so much more visible. Tonight, their light was completely unparalleled thanks to the absence of the new moon. They glittered across the expanse with a celestial elegance beyond the naked eye, with a limited variety of visible hues: blues, yellows, oranges, and primarily stark white. Valerie wasn't knowledge of astronomy was minimal, so she couldn't place any constellations besides than Orion's belt and the only star she could accurately name was Polaris. Nonetheless, it was still breathtaking, and she could respect why a boy like Danny would chose something this beautiful as his obsession.

“Stars... only exist here, in the real world,” Danny whispered. “And God, I missed them so much.”

Valerie knew it was getting late, and even though he was harming anyone, Danny eventually had to return to the Ghost Zone. The thought thoroughly depressed her, and she was starting to regret her choices as a ghost hunter. But... what was the real harm in stargazing with this poor boy who had lost _so_ much at such a young age?

“Can we watch the stars a little longer?” she implored, softly, staring back up at the enchanting cosmos with hummed a song of euphoria within her.

Danny's responsive smile was mildly bittersweet.

“We have all the time in the world.”

 


	2. Down to Earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Day 25 of Phanniemay 2019, Blood Blossoms.

It was a slow night, for once. So, Valerie figured she'd wrap things up early and go home to and maybe catch the new episode of her favorite romance drama. She usually never had the chance to watch it live and had to pirate it. It'd be nice to watch it on TV for once so she didn't have to worry about viruses.

Thankfully, since it was summer Valerie could spare an hour or two to TV. She wasn't obligated to study at the expense of her sleep schedule and actually had time to catch her breath. No homework, no peer pressure, no battling the social hierarchy - all Valerie had to worry about was her part-time job and keeping Amity Park safe from ghosts. Sure, that wasn't the easiest burden - but it was much simpler when she didn't have to worry about _school_.

Valerie positioned her jet-sled and leaned into the motion, cutting through the air with no resistance. Just for kicks, Valerie did a simple spin with her board, keeping her eyes steady on the gray horizon, an orange pinprick masked by layers of gray. It was a cloudy evening, maybe it was going to rain soon? That would be nice, it hadn't rained in a while… not since that weather ghost decided to make it rain for two weeks straight until she intervened.

That had been a long, _weird_ fight. But she'd managed.

Just as Valerie approached her apartment, her suit decided that now was a _wonderful_ time to announce that a ghost was near. _Great, just great._ Just when she was _so close_ to watching her show! She blamed Murphy's Law.

Well, she might as well get this fight done quickly. The show was on in less than ten minutes now, and she had been hoping to make some popcorn too…. ( _Popcorn can wait until the first commercial break,_ she reasoned.)

She glanced at her GPS and it guided her towards Amity's local cemetery. _How cliche_. Well, now that Valerie thought about it, she'd rarely encountered any ghosts near a cemetery before. Whatever a ghost was doing near a cemetery was bound to be interesting, wasn't it? Given that Amity's ghosts typically didn't wander there...

Valerie swooped down over the cemetery, flying parallel to the rows of graves. Her GPS said that the ghost was near here… so where was it? She didn't see a ghost, unless the ghost… was underground with its body? No, no that couldn't be it. She shook her wrist, trying to knock some sense into her GPS. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the most accurate device whenever she needed it in times like these. She'd have to get her benefactor to look at it sometime soon.

After some prompting, the GPS beeped, recalibrating itself. It pointed towards the gate of the cemetery, and Valerie followed in pursuit. She kept her blaster near, ready to combat whatever opponent that decided to test her today.

Valerie hovered close to the gate, peering over the fence and watching the entrance to the cemetery from the inside of the graveyard. She could hardly make out an ethereal figure, pacing back and forth in front of the gate, maintaining at least three feet off the ground. It floated slowly, but Valerie could see its aura flicker with irritation, impatience. That alone was definitely a red flag… even though it was oddly not attacking? Valerie was about to confront it until the ghost's face came into focus - and she froze.

_Danny._

Danny Fenton's ghost, the boy with bleached white hair and unnatural green eyes; a black t-shirt that was too much like the white-shirt he wore when he was alive; tan pants that had once been jeans; and that subtle curve of his nose, his complexion splashed with those radioactive, green freckles. It was certainly _him_ alright.

She had seen Danny once since that first night she encountered him in the sky. He had been stargazing again, floating with his back to the Earth, reaching a hand out into space. She watched him try to cradle the stars and decided that after she had interrupted his last stargazing sessions that… that she would leave him alone. That she would trust him to return to the Ghost Zone in peace. That she would let him have that intimate moment with his obsession, alone.

Danny wasn't like the violent ghosts that plagued Amity Park. He was just a boy that died too young, that never had the chance to follow his dreams, that never got to become an astronaut. And so, just for him… her old classmate… Valerie would turn a blind eye.

And now he was here, at the cemetery. Rather than in the sky, he was growing irritable as he fruitlessly wandered around the gate to the cemetery. If he was obsessed with space, then why would he visit a graveyard anyway? It wasn't like he had anyone to visit except - _oh_. Himself. Danny Fenton was buried at this cemetery, she remembered. She _had_ been at the burial, after all.

Once the realization sunk in, Valerie couldn't refrain from loosening her grip on her blaster. Her blaster threatened to jump from her grip and banged against the bottom of her board, creating a hollow, metal noise. She winced, realizing that she'd blown her cover. Danny looked up from his trance-like pacing and turned towards Valerie. He must've seen her looking over the fence, because he drew his eyebrows in confusion, "Valerie?"

 _Ah_ , so he remembered her. She hadn't been sure that he would be able to remember, given how fickle names and faces were for ghosts.

She was grateful that she was wearing her helmet, because no doubt she was blushing right about now, "Uh, hi Danny," she fired up her board, moving from behind the fence to just outside the gate. She maintained her board a few feet above the ground so that she was at Danny's eye level, "I uh… noticed there was a ghost here and… yeah. Didn't realize it was you?"

His aura softened, annoyance receding into fondness. "Hi. So I guess you're still not…?"

She shook her head, making a point to hide her blaster. "No, no. You're still good," she assured him. "I know you mean well."

"Thanks," he nodded.

There was an awkward tension, filling the space between them. Danny seemed liquid, fluid, moving around in the tension with a blissful ignorance. For Valerie, the silence was perturbing. "So, what are you doing?" she asked. "Not up in the sky tonight?"

He deadpanned, gesturing up, "Have you seen the sky?"

On instinct, she looked up anyway. And she remembered, it was cloudy tonight - of course it was an awful time to stargaze. "Don't get the weather forecast in the Ghost Zone, I'm guessing?"

At that, he laughed. "Yeah, it sucks not knowing what it's like out here. I was looking forward to seeing the stars tonight… but oh well. Can't change the sky. If I had weather powers like Vortex maybe I'd be tempted…" he trailed off, laughing nervously, as if he was afraid she'd attack him for that confession. He changed the subject, "I figured I'd come visit myself before I returned to the Ghost Zone. A lot of the other ghosts say finding your grave is therapeutic so I thought I'd give it a shot."

"Therapeutic?" she raised a brow. He stared at her blankly and she realized that he still couldn't see her face, so she retracted her helmet. Her hair decided to be a pain and splay over her face, so she brushed it away.

"Yeah, therapeutic," he confirmed. "Like finding some sort of peace within your soul… making it easier to accept that you're gone. And all that other poetic stuff about death," he rolled his eyes.

"So do you think it's true?" Valerie asked. "That you'll be able to find rest at your grave?"

The idea of Danny moving on to the afterlife was nice, since that meant he'd finally be able to find peace in his untimely death, but in a way Valerie was selfish; even though Danny's ghost was restlessly drawn to the stars, it was kind of… nice to have him around, to know that he wasn't completely vanished from this world.

"I don't know," he admitted. His aura seemed to recoil before settling back into its regular radiance. "It'd be nice… but I don't think _I'm_ ready to move on."

"Is that why you're pacing outside the gate?" she wondered. "If you want, I can wait with you here until you're ready to go in," she offered.

"Actually, uh," he raised his hand to the back of his neck, "it's not that I'm not ready. I _can't_ get in. I tried opening the gate and phasing through it but… it's like there's some sort of invisible wall."

Invisible wall?  
"Do you… have any ideas _why_? Cause uh, it's probably a ghost thing since I was able to fly over the fence," she pointed out.

"Yeah… I guess it may be because some sort of universal law that doesn't want me near my body? But that sounds really stupid though. I can't think of anything else," Danny sagged.

"I've never heard of anything like that," she seconded. And with that, Valerie landed her board on the sidewalk and approached the gate, ready to investigate…. _An invisible wall_ , Danny had said. Valerie almost doubted it, but if she was right… she had an explanation for why he couldn't enter the cemetery.

Valerie walked along the perimeter of the cemetery fence, trying to find a sign, any indication that she was right. And not very far from the gate, she found it. A chunky metallic box wired to the fence, aggressively humming with electricity. On the side of the contraption was a signature logo, that damning brand of ghost technology that often did Valerie more harm than good: FentonWorks. Mr. and Mrs. Fenton - Danny's _parents_ \- had installed a ghost shield at the cemetery.

"What's that?" Danny trailed behind her, quite literally. His legs blurred into a spectral tail, lagging behind him as he moved forward.

Her mouth suddenly felt dry. "It's… a ghost shield. That your parents installed," she added.

His eyes widened with recognition. "My parents?" he moved closer to examine the angry box. "They made that?"

"Well, yeah," she explained nervously. "After you opened the portal, they threw themselves into their work to grieve and to protect the town. They've produced a lot of stuff."

"And it actually works," he smiled. "Mom and Dad's inventions really work against ghosts, against me." Danny started laughing. His eyes flared a brighter shade of green. "And Jazz and I thought that they didn't!"

"When they started selling them, people around town had the same reaction," Valerie commented dryly.

"I'm just glad that… that their stuff works. I always doubted them, but it turns out that they're a lot more incredible than I knew. I'm just happy that their life's work isn't a bust, that they're amounting to what they _want_ to do in life." His grin receded for a moment, and he seemed wiser. More serious, older. "Whatever you do in life Val, just make sure that you do what you really want before it's too late. You never know when later becomes never."

Such advice from someone who was supposed to be the same age as her, someone who would likely be carefree if he hadn't died, felt _wrong_. Someone that young shouldn't be preaching about lost opportunities, but he was. Because he had his life taken from him at fourteen, before he _could_ do anything.

"I - I will," Valerie promised. She didn't even know what she wanted to do for the rest of her life, but it felt important that she swore herself to this.

"Alright," Danny relaxed. "Cool. So… I guess I also can't visit my grave, huh?" He ran a hand through his ashen hair, " _Ancients_ , I should have just stayed in the Zone tonight. No stars, no grave…."

Danny couldn't visit his grave because of the ghost shield, not because of some divine force preventing him from floating into the cemetery. His only problem was actually crossing the barrier, since ghosts could be trapped on either of a shield - he just needed help getting from one side to another…. And Valerie could be that help.

"Do you trust me?" she asked suddenly.

He regarded her apprehensively, "Yeah, why?"

"I have an idea, and you have to promise not to freak out," she explained. "I can get you to your grave."

He raised a brow, "Really? You have a way past the shield." He narrowed his eyes, "You aren't going to break it, are yo-?"

"No, no breaking," Valerie shook her head. She fumbled on her belt, searching for what she was looking for. She unclipped it and held it out. Her very own Ghost Thermos, her benefactor's version of the Fenton Thermos. "We'll use this."

"That is a soup can," Danny observed.

"No. Well, yes. But it's a device that traps ghosts."

"Oh." Subconsciously he seemed to float a few inches back. "And you want to use that on me because…?"

She thought that he would get it, but Valerie found herself explaining, "If I capture you in this, I can get you past the ghost shield. It'll only be for a second," reassured. "You know that I don't care about capturing you for real or I'd have done it already."

"That's…" he hesitated, "true. I've heard that getting stuffed into those things really _aren't_ fun, but if you can get me across the shield then I guess it's worth a try?"

"Okay," she nodded, clasping the thermos tentatively. "Just tell me when you're ready."

He still seemed reluctant, his tail flicking back and forth nervously. "Does it hurt to be sucked inside that?"

Valerie had never really thought about it. Whenever she captured ghosts she was more concerned with detaining them than making sure that they weren't being harmed. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "Usually I capture ghosts when they're causing destruction, so I've never taken the time to notice."

"Ah," he assessed. "Well, that's _helpful_."

"Sorry," she shrugged.

"It's - it's fine," Danny decided, doing his best to relax. It was clear from how his aura was fluctuating that he was scared, but he was doing his best to quell that. "Just go ahead and do it."

Before she could convince herself this was a bad idea, Valerie jammed the button on the side of the thermos and it sprung to life. A blue stream of light jetted outwards, encircling Danny and gradually pulled him into the thermos. He elicited a startled yelp, but otherwise didn't sound hurt. She hoped he wasn't. She'd feel really guilty for forcing it upon him if he was hurt.

So, with the thermos under her arm, Valerie abandoned her board on the sidewalk and entered the cemetery by foot. Once she knew she was a certain distance from the perimeter of the cemetery and the ghost shield, Valerie held the thermos out in front of her and pressed the opposite button to release Danny. He was ejected as easily as he had been captured. His body stretched out in front of Valerie, taking a moment to fully materialize.

"That sucked," he groaned. "Remind me to _never_ do that again."

Valerie pursed her lips. She hadn't realized before, but to get him _out_ of the cemetery, she'd have to transport him in the thermos again. But… she didn't necessarily have to break that to him _now_. "Alright," she nodded, biting her tongue.

"So," he fidgeted, drifting beside her. His tail split back into two separate limbs, legs. "Do _you_ know where my grave is?"

She raised a brow, "You don't?"

"Well _I_ wasn't at my own funeral." He paused, clarifying, "Well, I was. But _I_ -I wasn't there. I was in the Ghost Zone trying to figure out what the hell had just happened to me."

"That's fair. But I uh… I really don't remember which direction you're buried," she admitted. "It was a while ago and I'm not familiar with the cemetery."

Danny processed her words and almost laughed. He held a hand to his chest and grinned, "Aw, so you _did_ come to my funeral? Sweet of you. I wasn't sure."

"Everyone came," she recounted. Valerie decided to start walking right, where it looked like the graves were newer. With any luck, Danny's grave would be in that direction. He followed, lingering over her shoulder. She turned back to him, "Almost the entire grade showed up. People didn't just… ignore your death. You know that, right?"

"It's hard to wrap my mind around," he shrugged. "No one especially cared about me when I was alive except Sam and Tucker. How are they, by the way?" he added.

"I don't talk to them, but they don't really hang out anymore. After you died they sort of parted ways, but I think they're still on good terms. Sam hangs out with the other goth girls and Tucker has joined the other geeks. Sam doesn't seem any different, but she's clearly taking your death hard, silently. And Tucker…" she struggled with the right words, "he's a lot more vulnerable. That's for sure."

"Oh." He looked up at the cloudy sky for a moment, blankly staring into the gray. "Truthfully I didn't know what I expected. I want them to move on from me, but I never wanted them to lose each other. That's sorta… wow."

"It's life," Valerie consoled softly. "Friendships change whether we want them to or not. Hell, two years ago who woulda thought that I'd be friends with you?"

Danny froze. "We're friends?"

Valerie was suddenly uncertain. "Well, yeah? I assumed-"

"Oh, okay then. Sorry. I… ghosts usually don't have ghost hunters befriending them. I just wasn't…"

"No, I get it," she assured. "Really, you're the only ghost that I've really taken the time to listen to. Well, since meeting you I've tried to be more approachable. But I haven't really met the right ghosts yet."

"I understand," he nodded.

From there, they walked in silence, weaving between graves and searching for Danny's tombstone. And after a few more minutes of looking, they found it.

"This is it," Valerie realized, reading the epitaph before Danny. She watched as his eyes scanned the stone, how he unconsciously clenched his hands into his shirt.

" _Here lies Daniel James Fenton, beloved son and brother, taken from this world far too soon…._ " he read. " _May 25th, 2002 to July 28th, 2016…._ How long has it been since then again?" he wondered. "My sense of time is…" he gestured with his hands, pointing in every direction.

"It will be three years next month," Valerie replied. "It feels longer, yet not like any time has passed at all…. Funny how that works."

"It really is," he agreed, numbly. She observed his aura, how it seemed to grow and grow, as if he was on edge. Waiting. _Anxious_. They were still a good five feet away from his grave, keeping enough distance as if the grave would collapse if they got too close. This moment felt breakable, fragile. And neither of them were brave enough to terminate that.

"What now?" Valerie asked. "Do you… feel anything?"

Danny moved his hand to his throat. "No… and yes. I don't feel any peace. I feel like… this… _tingling_. It's weird. I'm not sure if it's good or bad. Should I…-" _get closer?_

She nodded slightly, keeping her eyes trained steadily on the grave as if something were to happen. And with that confirmation, Danny slowly floated forward. He gradually reached to touch his gravestone, and barely traced his fingers along the stone when a sudden cry ripped through his throat. It was raw and _agonized_ and it completely caught Valerie off-guard. For a moment, she suspected Danny was faking this display of pain, however when he dropped to the ground she realized that something was _really_ wrong.

Danny curled up in the dirt, whimpering on top of his own grave and Valerie didn't know what was wrong. He'd been fine one moment but when he touched his grave he completely _flipped_. Something was hurting him, but Valerie didn't know what.

" _Danny_ ," she moved forward. She crouched down and attempted shaking his shoulder but Danny dissolved under her hands like a mist. "What's wrong!?"

He sputtered, coughing. _Ghost didn't have lungs_. Something was wrong with Danny - something was _wrong_ -

"Burns…" he hissed, eyes wide with pain. "Meh side _burns_."

"Wh - what is it?" she tried, not knowing what to do. She didn't know what was wrong with him and she couldn't even touch him. _This was bad this was bad this was-_

Breathe.

Evaluate.

_Act._

She hunted ghosts, she should be prepared to deal with a dire situation like this without panicking. She could _do_ this.

"-si - side," Danny rasped again, writing on the ground. As the seconds progressed, he seemed less and less aware of his surroundings. Was this death for ghosts? This certainly couldn't be how ghosts 'passed on' into the afterlife. This was violent, horrendous. Something was interfering with Danny, messing with him, and she had to figure out what before it was too late.

He was talking about his side, _only_ his side. So perhaps what was hurting him was physical? Was there even anything touching his side? Valerie couldn't tell, because his side was touching the ground; he was laying on top of whatever was hurting him. She couldn't move Danny because he had gone intangible, for whatever reason. However, if she couldn't touch Danny, that meant that she should be able to reach through him and touch whatever is beneath him, she should be able to remove the thing hurting him.

Valerie moved her hand carefully, hesitantly reaching through Danny's misty form. As her hand touched him, Danny elicited another raw cry, his voice cracking as he struggled with the pain. Valerie grit her teeth and tried feeling for whatever was digging into Danny's side and hurting him. _The catalyst_. Whatever had started this….

Her hands brushed against something waxy, cool. It felt soft between her fingers, easily tearable. There was nothing else on the ground except for grass; this must be it. Valerie grabbed a fistful of whatever it was and pulled on it, pulling it from off the ground _through_ Danny's intangible body. As her hand and the object passed through his form, an even more _miserable_ scream tore through Danny's throat. It was much throatier and louder than his previous cries, and it took all of Valerie's willpower not to clam up right there.

She pulled her hand out of Danny's body and with that, his entire body fell limp on the ground. He was still conscious, obviously still pained, but he wasn't struggling anymore. Valerie turned over her hand and looked at the object in her palm, the thing that had caused Danny severe agony.

It was a rose. Well, it resembled a rose. Now that she examined it closer, it wasn't _exactly_ a rose, but definitely similar. It was a dark, red flower accentuated with thorns so dark that their pigment almost looked purple. It was a pretty flower, but something about it… felt sinister.

"What is this?" she wondered aloud. How could a flower of all things affect Danny like that? Was it a flower that had special properties against ghosts? And if so, what was it doing on Danny's grave? Wait, no. That wasn't a difficult question; Mr. and Mrs. Fenton were notoriously precautious when it came to ghosts. It wasn't so far-fetched to assume that they left a ghost-repelling flower on Danny's grave on purpose, possibly to ward off any spirits that might interfere with their son's grave. That made much more sense than Valerie expected it to, so she decided to roll with that explanation until she was told otherwise.

Danny groaned incoherently, trying to sit up but physically unable to. Ghosts usually bounced back from from her equipment, so that flower must really have a deadly blow to it.

"Are you… going to be alright she asked?"

He didn't look like he would be. His entire complexion was wrong, and his aura was practically nothing.

"I needa… Ghost Zone…" Danny slurred. "I du - dunna… w'at got me…"

"It was a flower," Valerie dismissed. "Probably from your parents. Why do you need the Ghost Zone? Danny, I don't think you can make it there."

His eyelids were glazed over in discomfort, but he pushed through it. He managed to respond, loosely digging his fingers into the dirt. "-ost Zone heals… 'm hurt."

"I know you're hurt, dummy," she stated impatiently. "But _how_ am I going to get you to the Ghost Zone? You clearly can't do it yourself!"

"F - entan… Work _s_ …." he tried, as if that gave Valerie all the answers. She knew he was injured, but his vagueness _wasn't_ helping.

"How the hell do _I_ get into FentonWorks?" she pointed out.

By now, it was clear that Danny didn't have much juice in him. Ghosts rarely fell unconscious, but she could tell Danny was on the verge… "Re - red."

Red Huntress. Well, _duh_. She was the Red Huntress - she could use that as her alibi to smuggle Danny back into the Ghost Zone. She'd never directly interacted with the Fentons, but tehy had an understanding that they both wanted to protect Amity Park. Even though Jack and Maddie often slacked in the hunting department, they made up for it with their ingenuity. So, she could ask them to let her deposit a ghost into her portal… a 'dangerous' ghost. That… that might work.

"Okay," she nodded to Danny. His eyes were already closed, but his hand twitched in comprehension.

He made another choking noise before croaking, "D - don't let 'em know i'm… they'll n- not like… _gh_ ost me… keep me 'way… i won't… re - re _-sist_ talk… to them." He didn't want his parents to know he was a ghost, but he also didn't trust himself not to speak to his parents if he saw them. At least… at least he knew himself enough to warn her.

"I will," she whispered softly. She pulled out her thermos again, ready to capture Danny so she could conveniently carry him to FentonWorks with her.

Despite his pain, a trace of a smile graced his lips, "I know. I - I trust you."

And then Valerie hit the button. If she didn't play this right, Danny wouldn't last much longer. But Valerie was going to get Danny to safety, resolve this disastrous mess that they had endured in only a few short moments. She was willing to go to any length for him; and it was funny, how she hadn't how much she trusted him, as well.


End file.
